Contradicting Actions
by Skywalkercrow
Summary: Darth Vader does some really strange things sometimes. Like seriously weird things. And that says a lot with the number of strange companions Aphra had shared her ship with over the years, that out of all the people she has meet Darth Vader is the most incomprehensible mess of contradicting actions she has ever witnessed.
1. Jedi

**Authors Note:  
**

Vader's a walking mess of a human being and he still loves Ahsoka despite her joining the Rebels.

Also if you haven't read the SW darht vader comics parts of it may be hard to follow

* * *

Darth Vader was surprisingly lenient when it came to subjects Dr. Aphra thought were taboo to members of the Empire, and was oddly strict about others she had never considered would be bad to bring up.

As an archeologist of sorts Aphra prides herself in knowledge of the past. Especially if it's forbidden information. Not only is it interesting to learn about, it can be sold for a lot if you know the right people.

So maybe Aphra should have done a better job at hiding said forbidden information in her ship, for example, old holos and news reports of Jedi from the Clone Wars. With a few new things produced from the Rebels, they were always a fun thing to see.

It's not as if she exactly had a reason to hide it before, she certainly didn't know Darth Vader of all people would invite himself onto her ship and decide to hire her in the middle of one of her not strictly legal archeological ventures.

Aphra was just feeling lucky that the second in command didn't launch her into space at the first sight of the stuff. Force, she was feeling lucky that he needed her help get a bunch of old Clone Wars era droids, and probably wouldn't kill her for casually disobeying the law because of it.

Darth Vader seamed to find the collection out of pure luck. He was inspecting parts of the ship and the many pieces of broken objects she kept around, and just started going through the holos one by one.

It was possible he already knew or at least had a hunch that she was in possession of such illegal information, because he did not say anything to her when he started looking at the stuff. Going through each holo he turned them on, watched for a short time and then turned it off and put it back where he found it.

Aphra was far too worried that he would turn on her at any moment to say anything about his newfound adventure of looking at stuff that didn't belong to him. At least he was polite enough to put them back where he found them.

Eventually he did come across one holo that held his attention.

It was an old news report of a bombing that occurred at the Jedi temple about a year before the Empire came into existence. The twi'lek woman reporting was talking about the momentarily upcoming trial for the person who had committed the crime. There wasn't any way to tell exactly what he thought of said report, because he was encased in black armor she was sure was too heavy to be comfortable, so she didn't know why this one in particular caught his attention.

"What do you think of this report?" He asked her without addressing the fact that she does in fact have a hoard of very illegal information pertaining to the Jedi.

Aphra didn't know what to say to that. What exactly was there to say about the news report at all? From what she remembered the person up for the trial was a painfully young Torgruta and hadn't actually done anything wrong. But she didn't want to strait up say she sided with the Jedi girl. She opted for a more neutral option.

"So what do you mean by that, exactly?"

The holo continued to play in the background coming to the actual trial of the girl. She was just as young as Aphra remembered. All gangly arms with short montrails that gave away her youth more so then anything else.

"I assume you've seen the full trial based on your... collection. What do you think of it?" Although the last sentence was a question, it felt more like a threat. He then turned his head from the holo to look directly at her and stated what was definitely a threat. "It would be wise to remember I can sense when you are lying to me."

"Well, I think that..." Aphra did not understand his angle with this, but she was positive he wasn't going to kill her over this, since he hadn't already. "...That I feel a bit bad for that kid who was almost punished for it. I mean if I was her I wouldn't stick around people like that, or like the Jedi to even begin with."

"Ahsoka Tano did not remain in the Jedi Order after that trial. She left after seeing the true face of the Jedi that day."

Curiosity picks at her mind hearing that. It was information not in any of the holos she's seen from the Clone Wars, or the Rebels. She knows asking questions about the Jedi to the person who is mostly known for killing Jedi is not the best idea, but the fact that she is still standing after everything so far means something. Aphra doesn't know what it means, but it's something.

"And then what happened when the Empire, and you happened?"

Vader in his expressionless, motionless tall stance gave thought to the question, pausing before giving her an answer. The sound of the holo and Vader's endless breathing filling in the silence before he responded.

"I... offered her a position in the Inquisitors rank." His tone suddenly turned very sour for someone with a mechanized voice, "and she declined."

Despite not really knowing what he could possibly be thinking, she felt like it was a significant thing to tell her. It was as if the very atmosphere of the air changed to be harder to take in. With every sentence Vader speaks it raises more questions in Aphra's mind.

 _Were all the Inquisitors Jedi? Why did you offer her a position if your job is to kill Jedi? Why did you know her name? How did you know she left the order after the trial?_

The Sith Lord continued to speak before Aphra could get out any questions, in that sour tone like before, but it turned to one of regret in the end of the sentence.

"It appeared that despite knowing the truth about the Jedi, and their cruel ways... 'Soka chose to be on the side of the Rebellion instead of mine."

"And then you killed her? Right?"

The words blurred out of her mouth, because Vader had to have killed this girl at this point if anything she's ever heard about the man was true. Something about him has to be predictable by her, if she ever hopes of escaping from his employment alive.

Vader turned his helmet toward the side giving Aphra the impression that his gaze was turned away from her own.

"In a way we both killed a part of one another that day."

How absolutely vague. This raises more questions, and it wasn't even an answer.

The sound of a male Jedi suddenly and loudly interrupting the court room trial on the holo was enough for Vader to remove his attention from Aphra completely.

And force, what a heartthrob this Jedi was. It was her favorite part of this holo, because not only does this Jedi somehow have the real culprit with him and gets her to confess almost instantly, he looks great doing it. It's not like she's into men that much, but there's something distinctly captivating about him. Maybe it was the raw emotion he gave off that she never sees in these old holos of the past Jedi.

After whatever just happened in their conversation that made Vader turn suddenly sour and unhelpfully vague, she figured they both need something lightheartedly fun. And maybe get to know the hulking mass of black armor a bit more then not at all.

"Geez what a heartbreaker, huh?"

Ever so slowly, Vader turned his masked head to look at Aphra directly. And stared at her without saying a word.

"-uhh, like how he's all hot and the Jedi weren't allowed to like..."

Distinctly she gets the impression that she's digging herself into a deeper hole to die in with every new word that comes out of her mouth. How Vader manages to convey this despite not being able to see his face is truly a talent. Maybe it's the fact that the man stands a good foot over her head that makes him so intimidating in his silence.

Well it's time to forget about this moment in time forever. File that one away in, never think of again please. Guess he wasn't a fan of talking about attractive people. That one usually works on most to at least make them smile, or say something personally surface level about themselves.

With that awful moment over, Vader turned the holo off, and put it somewhere on his belt, then proceeded to leave for the cockpit, despite the fact that they had at least an hour left before they arrived at Geonosis.

She sure did manage to somehow make Darth Vader of all people feel uncomfortable, so much so, he had to leave her sight immediately. What an accomplishment.

Wait a second, did Darth Vader seriously just steal one of the holos that she so very diligently worked hard to get? That is, for no better word, strange. Vader obviously knew exactly what the trial was, and from what he said Vader probably knew more about it then the news report and herself.

If he took it because it was illegal information he would have simply destroyed it along with everything else.

Then the question is, why take the holo?

Perhaps some things are better off left unanswered. Questions certainly make life more interesting. But then again, solving mysteries is incredibly fun. And Darth Vader is one big mystery waiting to be solved.

If only the mystery wouldn't kill her if she became too annoying, she would be begging for answers.


	2. Cybernetics

**Author's Note:** Here is where if you haven't read the comics it's going to be completely incomprehensible

Takes place directly after Aphra tells Vader Padmé was not pregnant when she died. Slight OOCness on Vader's part

Warning, (also a slight spoiler) : This chapter contains self harm

* * *

Nothing says perfectly normal like being sent to Naboo to interrogate the mortician of a former Queen who's been dead for twenty years to see if she was pregnant or not when she died.

But she supposed this is important information to Vader. To know exactly whoever the kid that blew up the Death Star came out of.

Every time Aphra thinks this is the strangest thing Vader has done, he does something weirder.

Believe it on not the weird stuff happened after she got back from Naboo, and didn't really have to do anything with the mission. The archeologist had gotten used to the dark lord's obsession with that kid who blew up the Death Star and his interest in every useless scrap of information on the kid, so the mission was as cut and dry as torture and execution normally are.

If there's one thing she can give Vader it's that he is incredibly talented in outdoing his own extravagant actions with each new moment she is by his side. It was like the universe had a magnetic pull on him that made him do the most dramatic thing he could at any given moment in time.

Not that she would ever say that to him.

After going to meet with Vader in a well hidden location, and giving him the information, he started acting strange. Or at least stranger then usual. His sentences would stop and start seemingly at random and often times he wouldn't dignify what she was trying to say with a response. Glaring at her through the dark lenses of his mask like she had said something wrong to her harmless statements.

Feeling absolutely done with whatever was up with Vader this time, and not wanting to accidentally cross some invisible line she wasn't aware and die because of it, she retired to her ship parked away hidden in the caves. She really wanted to sleep after being awake for so long.

* * *

Aphra had only been asleep for one hour when she heard Vader pacing around the Arc Angel. The sound of his mechanical breathing and boots bouncing around the halls had woken her from light sleep.

Absolutely wonderful, why is he in her ship, she thought to herself.

It's not like Aphra wanted to go and see what had gotten him into a fuss this time. She couldn't exactly tell the second in command to stop or leave to her ship without ending up suffocating to death, or being launched into space. If she wanted to get some sleep she would need to wait him out. And hope whatever he's doing isn't too destructive.

There was a deep thunk sound followed by a metallic scrape that echoed throughout the ship that took her out of her thoughts for a moment. Followed by another one, this time made up mostly of high picked shrieks, like metal on metal.

Perhaps waiting for him to calm down wouldn't happen. With her luck Vader would end up destroying something important and she would end up fixing whatever he broke.

Aphra decided to at the very least see what Darth Vader was doing.

Looking out her door into the hall she could see Vader's shadow as he paced back and forth.

"He lied to me." Vader spoke out loud, to no one.

Talking to himself was a new development in the ever growing list of close to crazy things she's seen Darth Vader do.

Looking at more of the room she could tell her two droids must have moved themselves to a different part of the ship to avoid the disaster Vader was probably about to cause. Smart of them.

Judging by the hole in the wall, the disaster had already started. The hole in her ship's metal wall. That must have been some punch to tare through the inner shell of her ship, exposing wires of the Arc Angel's inner-workings.

It was a nice reminder that Vader could probably shove his fist through her chest with enough force for it to come out the other side, if she made him angry enough to warrant it. But if she didn't stop him, who knows what kind of irreparable damage to her ship he would cause. She's seen him in fights before, and if he did half the damage like what she has seen him cause before, The Arc Angel wouldn't be flying anytime soon.

And Aphra felt like she had a good enough grasp of his moods in the months they had known each other to diffuse the situation and live. Probably.

Deciding to enter the area, Aphra was able to get a better look at where Vader had wondered off too after fisting her wall.

Vader was looking down at his right hand as he walked in the left corner of the room, the glove appeared to be shredded where his fist came into contact with the wall. The torn leather revealing the shiny metal prosthetic underneath. The fingers of which appeared to be dented and cracked with loose wires hanging out.

To her it looked like he was picking at the wires in his fingers and pulling them loose from the casing. Why, she couldn't begin to guess.

Aphra had grasped his hands and arms enough to know that he probably had prosthetics, but seeing it was something else entirely. Looking at it felt like she was seeing something she shouldn't be, like seeing a holodrama set after filming. And the sight was absolutely lovely, she wanted to see more of whatever laid beneath that black armor. Just so she could know something that no one else knew. That information would be worth a lot to herself and to others.

If she could find some weakness in his armor or mind, her chances of living would increase tenfold. Then she could sell that information to some of her less then legal clients.

Maybe she could even get a tracker on him if she was lucky.

Imagine the amount of credits she could get from the Rebels for selling the second in command's weakness along with a monitor of his location.

Looking over to the broken wall again, Aphra could see the sharp bits of torn off metal that gave way to the ships wired mechanics. If Vader's fist wasn't mechanical he would have broken it and torn it to bloody shreds without a doubt.

If Aphra wanted the information about him she would need to think of something fast before he noticed her.

Vader suddenly stopped in his movements and looked over at his agent.

"Aphra. What is it that you want?" Vader's tone appeared to be filled with venom more so then usual.

"Uh." Aphra did not know what to say. She hadn't exactly came up with a good plan to say to him fast enough. It was a good thing she had a talent for for winging things. "Looks like you accidently hurt yourself there huh."

Vader looked at his limp, broken hand.

"It is nothing that cannot be fixed." Darth Vader returned to a formal tone as if he didn't just shove his entire fist through a metal wall and talk to himself. "I often injure easily."

The last part of his sentence sounded strange to her.

"How about I fix it for you?"

Now there is a plan. Vader knows Aphra is good with mechanics, that's why she was hired in the first place. If only she could convince him to let her take a look.

"I can take care it." Vader responded.

"How are you gonna' do that with one arm?"

"I will manage, I've made quick repairs before."

"Come on it'll only take like a second." She continued to try and convince him. "I'll do a much better job than if you tried to do it alone, make it look good as new."

The second in command seamed to pause in order to think about her words.

"Make it quick." Vader reluctantly said. "I would rather not return to my flagship like this."

Aphra couldn't be entirely positive what exactly made him change his mind, but she assumed it was because he would rather not be seen with a broken hand he got on a mission from his secret agent that was helping him overthrow the Emperor.

Vader held out his hand to her, his open palm facing the ground.

Looking close up at his hand Aphra could where the worst damage was. The joints of his two smaller fingers had been crushed on impact while the other three suffered from denting.

And he had been pulling out the wires from his hand, they were frayed and mangled, having been yanked from the casing.

"Can you move your fingers for me?" Aphra asked.

Vader did not reply verbally, but he was unable to move his fingers. Instead opting to rotate his wrist, to show that at least some part of his arm was working.

It would need some serious rewiring.

 _Why did Vader pick at the wires in the first place?_ The agent wondered.

She did have the parts to put him back together. All mechanical hands were similar to the lifeless androids and protocol droids she tinkered with. A multipurpose screwdriver, a few copper wires, and metal coverings would be all she needed.

"Go sit on that chair." Aphra pointed to a sturdy stool in the corner of the room next to a desk covered in far too many pieces of scrap metal. "I'll get what I need."

The Sith Lord did not say a word as he precariously placed himself on the seat, and Aphra grabbed what she needed, taking a small unnecessary piece of tracking equipment as well, before pulling up her own chair next to him.

For sure she was going to put that tracker into his hand.

Aphra took Vader's hand into her own and pulled off what was remaining of his glove. Because he had sleeves that reached the beginning of his hand, she could not tell how much of his arm was mechanical. If she was to guess, she would assume all of it. She knew a few people who had willingly removed their arms and had them replaced in order to be stronger.

Most of them were bounty hunters though, she was also positive the Empire was not a fan of hiring cyborgs. She wondered how he even became the second in command to begin with if that was true.

"If you are going to fix it, fix it. Do not sit there staring at me, or I will do it myself." The armored man said to her, irritated she had not somehow magically instantly fixed his hand.

Interesting to note Vader did not like people looking at him when he was damaged, judging by how he mentioned staring at him, and not his broken hand. This was the first time she has ever seen him uncomfortable. She wasn't aware that was an emotion he was capable of. This was also the first time she had ever seen him injured to begin with.

In fact, in all of the holos she had seen of him, from the Empire, Rebellion and Independent sources, he was somehow always undamaged. Like some sort of immortal demigod.

Darth Vader, commander of the imperial navy, defeated by a wall.

And yet, she thought, Vader had singlehandedly taken down armies without a scratch, he crashed in spacecrafts and remained uninjured, and it was her ships wall, an inanimate object, that had reveled he could be harmed like a mortal being. Or, a darker thought struck her, Vader had rendered his own hand useless. It wasn't like the wall attacked him somehow.

 _But why?_

Taking a tool into hand, Aphra began to take his hand apart, piece by piece.

As Vader was more irritable then usual today, and if what she thought was true, she figured she should try and ease the awkward silence, or at least as silent as it could be when there was endless mechanical breathing. Most people felt better near her, after they talk about something they both had in common. It would also serve as a distraction so she could sneak the small tracker into him.

"So, do you like work on your own cybernetics a lot?"

This was something she knew they both knew about. It also might get him to accidentally reveal something about himself that Aphra didn't know, and could use.

"What does it matter?" Vader asked her.

Observing his cybernetics without the casing, she could tell that he had been pulling on the wired sensors that controlled feeling. Perhaps he had been trying to stop the pain registering from them.

"Come on, it's not that prying of a question. I already know you probably have a decent amount of cybernetics." Aphra replied as she worked.

When she had first came in contact with him she had believed some of the conspiracy theories that he was an advanced robot. But after Vader announced he wanted her to build him an army, she thought he was at least partially an organic being with a mind of his own.

After seeing what Vader just did to her ship, she knew he had to be some type of living creature.

Looking up from her work to his mask she could see his helmet was not turned to her, fixated to a random spot on the wall, and the lenses of his mask were not black, they were dark red. She had not noticed that before.

Vader was taking a very long time to answer her question. As if he was debating with himself to come up with an answer. Deciding to lie or not.

"I am not permitted to work on my own body." Vader finally decided to say. "But I often work with my armor."

"Not... permitted?" She asked. Why would Darth Vader, the second in command, the Jedi killer, not be allowed to mess with his own mechanics. She knew he was pretty good with them, so it wasn't like it was because he had no idea what he was doing.

 _Oh no_. Aphra thought, reaching an unfortunate conclusion.

Vader had rendered his own hand useless, and he had wanted to fix it himself before he went back to his ship. He had been picking at the feeling receptors. He did not like that Aphra saw he was injured, but took her help to make his hand look like it had never been damaged to begin with. He lied and told her he injured eaisly, even though she had never seen him hurt before.

"It means not allowed." Vader said, being purposefully obtuse.

 _Oh no._ She thought again and again in her head. Vader had seamed so untouchable.

Aphra remembered the Jedi killer had shown compassion for those Jedi he was supposed to kill. Like that torgrua girl on the holo.

"I knew that, you know that's not what I was asking." Aphra regretted asking him the question to begin with, she felt herself go pale as she spoke.

Darth Vader, the Jedi killer, who had compassion for Jedi. The unscratchable, who was injured easily. The second in command of the Empire, who was not allowed to tinker with his own body.

"Whatever, Never-mind." She tried to say casually, backing out of the conversation she had started.

The silence was so much worse then before. She wished one of their droids would walk in and start talking about something, anything.

She changed her mind, she didn't want to know what was underneath that armor. She didn't want to know his weakness, so she could sell it. She didn't want to know this.

 _Its the war, everybody's got a sob story. Boo hoo._ The agent remembered telling the queen's mortician minutes before his death.

Suddenly, Vader clenched his hand and forced Aphra to move away from it, to avoid being burned by the sparks the open wires caused, moving his helmet to look down at her.

"Pain keeps the Sith cemented in the dark side." The second in command said to her without prompting. Like he could somehow read her thoughts.

"Yeah," as if Aphra knew what half those words meant, "it sure does."

The silence was deafening, even with Vader's harsh breathing.

Doctor Aphra did not place the tracker in Darth Vader's hand as she finished her work.


	3. Kindness

Authors Note:

Tagge sucks .DOX

Also this chapter is longer then the other two chapters combined, and I had deleted a lot of unfitting stuff

* * *

Out of all the the things she has ever seen Vader do, or had been commanded by him to do, nothing ever struck her as unexpected as his kindness.

Darth Vader in all his black hulking mass of leather and armor, in his high position as second in command of the Empire, in his symbol as the might of the imperial army, was unexpectedly kind to slaves and he somehow was the best gift giver she had ever met.

It was the exact opposite of everything she would expect from someone like him. Specifically, someone with a lot of money in a position of power, epically since slavery was legal and supported in the Empire. Not that it was prevented entirely by the Republic.

With her line of work it wasn't completely unheard of to disguise yourself and sneak into a party to steal something and or kill someone. So she had seen the way the upper class treats their servants up close and personal. It was always very cathartic to steal from them.

Being invited, or in this case commanded, by Vader to more or less attend a dinner party was unexpected, even if she was going to be a waitress there, but then again every assignment from him felt like she was being blind sighted.

Most of the blind sighting came from the fact that Vader was doing this, and had to use her, specifically because he hated the Royal family, and the imperial he was taking orders from named Tagge, was good friends with them and wanted more of the planet's support for the Empire and more resources for his own family's mining company.

Essentially Vader was being used as a showoffs piece for Tagge's business ventures, and couldn't do anything about it and was using her to take revenge.

Apparently Vader couldn't just get rid of anyone he wanted to by killing them without warning like she thought he could. Mabye she was reading too much Rebel propaganda like Vader said she was.

The mission plan was for her to disguise herself as a servant and wait for the moment to use some of her own self-collected Rebellion propaganda and plant it as evidence on the Royal family so when the Darth Vader, Tagge and their platoon showed up, the evidence would be found and the royal family would be dismantled.

She did not like how Vader was having her use her own collection of illegal holos and holobooks for the mission, but Vader promised her he would give her something of equal value back. Something of equal value that was not credits, she made him say, because these things we not things you could simply buy. She was hoping it could be some Jedi stuff he picked up off his victims. Those things were always interesting.

Aphra was learning far too much about the Empire's drama then she wanted. Maybe she just thought that because she had to once again put up with snobs who thought they were better then her. Snobs who thought they were somehow better then Darth Vader.

Darth Vader who was so much more than everything that had ever been said about him. Aphra thought she was getting too attached. Now taking insults to Vader as personal ones to herself.

At least she would be running their life.

Because from what Vader had written in the report he was currently making her read she would like to stick Tripple-zero on them.

The report was written far too formally then Aphra was used to when it came to mission planning with other people. Written in standard format with organized paragraphs, made her glad Vader never expected her to make reports to him like this.

It included parts of mission Vader himself had been given by Tagge, who from what she could tell, liked giving Darth Vader orders far too much. Also detailing the specific instances Tagge has often used his position in the military to help his family mining company. The Royal family they would be visiting also had a bad history for mistreating their hired servants. They also owned many slaves. Something she didn't expect Vader too frame as a negative in his report to her.

Sitting in the imperial ship's copilot seat Aphra loudly remarked, "Why are so many imperials so annoying and ugly." as if she was having a causal conversation with a friend and not the second in command of the Empire she was insulting.

"Aphra, that could be considered treasonous." Vader said as if he wasn't paying Aphra to commit treason in this moment.

"I know you have to feel the same about some of your coworkers."

"I am assuming you've finished reading the report by your comments." Vader ignored her statement. "You should get dressed in the uniform I have provided for you. I want you inside the castle before the Empire officially arrives."

"We have like an hour left in hyperspace, besides, to me it seams like you don't want to answer my question. You know, normally people like talking about others they hate."

"I am not like most people." He responded, but chose to indulge Aphra once again and answer her. "If I had to pick someone, Admiral Motti would be near the top of that list."

"Not Tagge?" She asked, because of the remarks from Tagge to Vader in the report she had just read.

"There is more than one person on that list."

"Am I ever going to see this list?" Aphra would love to see the names of people on Darth Vader's theoretical list of people he hates and why he doesn't like them.

"Get into the uniform Aphra, remember you are here for a mission."

Aphra gave a mock salute when she stood.

"I'm on it sir."

* * *

As it turns out sneaking into a massive castle, on a planet that had not known war in decades, when everyone there was frantically preparing for a short notice visit from the second in command and a grand general of the Empire was significantly easier then breaking into a museum vault or one of the Rebellion's bases.

Aphra almost didn't need the map and key-codes to the palace Vader had provided her.

While she was inside, simply having the servant uniform on and acting like she was cleaning up something or even just standing in a corner of the room waiting for orders made her invisible.

Of course there were some difficulties, like the security robots that didn't have her in their database, but Aphra was made for taking enemy robots apart and changing them to make her do her bidding.

What was really difficult was hearing the King and Queen speak and not shooting them both in the head. Even their offspring were annoying.

Darth Vader and his small legion of troops should be arriving any second now and the King just had to have every little detail in place. The Queen meanwhile was positive one of the servants would act up and had sent one of her daughters to lecture them on proper etiquette. Apparently in the past one of the servants had tripped over their own feet and spilled expensive wine on the marble flooring, directly in front of another planet's royalty.

Aphra would very much love to tell the woman the kind of improper, unprofessional things she had said to Darth Vader's face in the past, but she knew now was not the time nor place. So she stood there, staring off into the distance wondering when her boss would decide to show up. It was also funny how uptight they were about everyone acting in place when they didn't even realized Aphra wasn't supposed to be here in the first place.

Currently Aphra, and what she could only call a small army of young humans in red, were standing in line in a room off to the side of the throne room, listening to the princess, who's name she couldn't remember, repeat herself over and over again until they were finally offered relief when the Empire officially arrived.

"Grand General Tagge has arrived on planet." On of the princes came into the room and told the princesses, finally making her shut up.

"Get into line like your supposed to." She pointed to the throne room and Aphra pretended to know what she was supposed to be doing, following the lead of everyone else, who she was beginning to notice were all much taller and more attractive then herself. Despite that, no one said anything to her.

When Vader finally did arrive, it was more of an event then simply opening the throne room doors.

It was strange to be on the receiving end of Darth Vader's dramatic entrances for once. Usually she was by his side, able to observe the gasping faces, and awestruck eyes. Now she was able to view all of Vader's dramatics from the sidelines, even if they were toned down because of Tagge.

The throne room doors opened, Tagge and Vader walked in side by side with a small platoon of stormtroopers in line behind them, who in entering the room quickly spread out behind them to the farthest wall of the room and stood at attention.

"The royal family welcomes you." The eldest princess greeted Tagge.

"The Empire thanks you for welcoming us." Tagge said with a smile. "I am looking forward to our business ventures once more."

"And it's so good to see Lord Vader came with you to meet us today."

"Of course, he is under my orders currently."

"How impressive."

They spoke as if Vader was not a person himself.

It really did look like Darth Vader held back his words when he was around other Imperials. He wasn't objecting to anything. Maybe it was just because he knew the firestorm that would soon break out as they Royals would be framed as rebel sympathizers.

"Now that everyone has been introduced, we can get on with the meeting."  
Tagge said. "Lord Vader, feel free to do whatever you like and explore the castle before dinner tomorrow."

"Please milord, before everyone is dismissed." The King began to say, gesturing to the line of servants lined up. "Feel free to bring any of the servants with you to your room."

 _Yikes_. Aphra thought. _It would be awful to actually work here_. Thievery has way better standards and clientele. It was a good thing she was only here undercover while the second in command was here.

"The short, dark haired one." Vader gestured to Aphra with one of his hands. "Can come with me."

Quietly she moved from her place in line and stood next to him. She imagined her short stature and bright red frilly uniform looked ridiculous next to Darth Vader's massive height and black armor.

"And excellent choice." The Queen remarked, also not noticing Aphra did not actually work here.

"I didn't think that you would be the type Lord Vader." Tagge said to him, surprised. "I thought you would choose someone taller."

Vader didn't dignify that comment with a response.

"Follow me." Vader said to her as he moved his hand to her back, but did not touch her.

* * *

As they were walking to Vader's assigned room in the castle, she noticed it was far less busy, practically empty now that the frantic preparations were over and most everyone else remained in the throne room.

But the hallways were not completely empty.

"They really think the Empire will help." They heard two women laugh between themselves unaware that Vader and Aphra were headed their way.

Aphra had a bad feeling about this. She really didn't want to witness two helpless women be murdered because they were in Vader's path while he was in a bad mood and they joked among themselves.

There were two women speaking to one another in laughing whispers. Both of them were togrutas with orangey-red skin and yellow lekku stripes. They were wearing the Castle's bright orange slave uniform. Similar to Aphra's in everything but color.

As soon as they noticed Darth Vader they froze in place.

"You would best not speak that while the Empire is here." Vader spoke to them. "The grand general and stormtroopers are not as lenient as me, and the introductions between our parties are over."

Then Vader simply carried on his way. Leaving the two alone.

"So... that was something." Aphra said as soon as she thought they were out of earshot. "Didn't expect that from you."

"When have you ever expected something I've chosen to do?" Vader responded.

Well he wasn't wrong.

Everything Vader did made her wonder why he was even a part of the Empire in the first place. Then again she was being paid by him to create a secret army, so she should expect him to ignore a lot of anti-Empire things. After all she herself had a ton of illegal things and Vader didn't care about that either.

* * *

As soon as they entered the room Vader took out a spyware detector and looked for hidden microphones and cameras.

"Aphra have you planted the evidence?" He asked her the moment he was finished looking for bugs, finding none.

"Duh, of course sir." She said, did he think she would be bad at undercover work? "And for a second there I actually thought you had been like, actually flirting with me." She added in jokingly.

So maybe she was getting far to comfortable with the man who was likely to be her cause of death. It was kind of hard not to do when her life was slowly beginning to revolve around him, and when you knew some of the person's deepest secrets. Not that anyone would believe her if she told of that one in particular.

"It is not like you have not flirted towards me before this, and you knew I only wanted to speak with you, you're undercover." Vader courtly responded to her joke as if it was not one.

"Wha- I never flirted to you?" She was completely flabbergasted. Where did he even get an idea like that from. Was it because she was nice and friendly to him sometimes? Was he just not used to people being nice to him and misinterpreted that?

"You are correct, I was wrong. You have never done that." Vader quickly corrected himself, and pretend like he cared about the paintings in the room, going over to one and starring at it.

Now Aphra thought she absolutely did flirt with him somehow. At the very least she had said something he interpreted as flirting. She didn't think apologizing was a physically possible for him.

"Okay so now I think I actually may have, was I drunk? Because I swear I didn't mean it... You're not my type." She hoped he wouldn't get mad at that last part.

"You were not drunk, because it never happened." Vader responded quickly once more.

"Okay now you really really need to tell me what I said."

"I have never once seen someone deny an apology from me."

"Well I've never seen- Wait, you're changing the subject, you can't do that!"

"Would you like me to explicitly say I'm sorry?"

"I would like you to tell me what I said."

There was a long pause. Far too long a pause for her linking. Vader must be thinking hard about what to tell her.

"I cannot tell you what you said to me, because you did not say anything."

"Alright I'm done with this." She announced not willing to try and argue with him about this subject. But she did think of a subject she wanted to argue with him about. "Speaking of illegal things I've collected, when are you going to give me back the clone wars holo you stole."

"What holo?" He asked as if Aphra did not see him take it with him, never to be seen again, a few weeks ago.

"You know," she began to explain, "the one about the court trial of that little torgruta kid and then that really hot-"

"-I do not have it with me." Vader tried to interrupt her but she kept talking.

"-blonde Jedi interprets the court."

Aphra smiled, enjoying how uncomfortable it made him to speak about his mortal enemies like that.

"When you do get it again, are you gonna give it back to me?" She said.

"No, that is illegal material Aphra."

As if you care actually care about that, you let me keep all the other holos. Even the ones made by the rebellion. Aphra thought.

"Whatever I have more holos of them both anyway."

Vader quickly turned and faced her.

"You have more."

"Yeah the Rebellion like, has a ton of stuff on them, they probably wouldn't notice anything was missing." She said remembering how they boy in particular was especially beloved by the rebellion for some reason.

"What kind of things did they have."

"I thought you weren't interested in that."

"I am interested because the torgrutan Jedi is still alive."

"You said you wanted her the girl to join you right. 'Sokka or whatever her name was. You want her alive."

"I simply knew her before the Empire, and believed she would join my cause."

"What I think is that you just want to know what kind of things the Rebellion has on the Jedi." Aphra replied, thinking Vader just wanted information on the Rebels.

"It is my job to kill all of them."

"You didn't kill her though."

"It was not for lack of trying." Vader said irritated. "And I had only asked her to join beside she had once been my sister and I thought she would choose me over them."

 _"She's your sister?"_

"Not literally. I am not related to her by blood."

"Oh, for a second there I was wondering how you fit monterails and lekku under that thing." Aphra pointed to his mask.

Vader didn't respond, instead choosing to walk around the room inspecting different objects before looking out the window overlooking the gardens.

The room was pretty nice. It was large with a few handmade paintings and an attached bathroom. Everything in the room was warm colors of red and orange that went along nicely with the dark wood frame of the bed.

The _singular_ bed.

Throwing herself onto that large bed face first she said, muffled by the mattress "I've noticed there is only one bed."

"I will not be using it. I only sleep in my own room, and I never remove my armor unless I'm in one of three specific places. I will be working on reports for the night."

"That sounds boring." Aphra said addressing his need to work instead of how he refuses to sleep anywhere he was unfamiliar with. She was used to hearing strange things like that from him at this point in time.

"It is my job." He responded.

Aphra soon fell asleep to the sound of Vader's mechanical breathing as he quietly typed away on his holo-communicator. She didn't bother to remove the uniform or go under the blankets.

* * *

"I have unfortunate news." Vader told Aphra in the castle gardens the next day. Her uniform rumpled from sleeping in it all night. "Tagge found the evidence you planted. He was convinced someone had tried to frame them and continues to support the family. He managed to convince others the Royal family is being framed and they are looking for the culprit."

"So... what now?" Aphra responded disappointed in the mission's failure.

"We are blowing up the palace and we are going to kill the royal family in the chaos it causes."

 _Holy Kriff._ Aphra thought. _Now that's direct action._

This mission went from zero to one-hundred very fast.

"This plan sounds way more fun and satisfying then the last one." She told him.

"I agree with you on that." Vader said. "However there are much higher risks, many more variables, and we are leaving tomorrow morning."

"That leaves us what, a like few hours to pull this thing off? No problem. Definitely no sweat."

* * *

The mission plan had been officially changed.

Aphra had to either steal explosives from the stormtroopers or get the ingredients to make her own bombs. Either plan had to be large scale enough for either her or Vader to to get away with killing the royal family and not be blamed.

And, they had both decided it would be best for the plan to launch during the dinner party happening in about three hours.

The only reason Aphra was not freaking out about about these time constraints was because if by some curse of bad luck everything went wrong, and she couldn't enact the plan in time, absolutely nothing would happen.

All of this was happening only because Vader was petty and refused to do anything that was less then dramatic.

She was pretty sure if she messed this one up Vader wouldn't care too badly.

That didn't mean Aphra couldn't have fun knowing one of her favorite power fantasies was about to come true. She was about to blow the castle of corrupt royalty sky-high.

Bad news, she could not find all the right ingredients for a bomb that could either melt through marble or fracture stone.

Good news, she 'borrowed' some explosives from a few stormtroopers and those things always packed a punch.

Setting them up in different places around the castle was easy as no one paid anyone in the servants uniform any mind as long as they weren't in anyone's way. Having been given the layout of the building and her knowledge of structural integrity, she made some very well educated guesses to where the best places for the bombs to be placed.

Of course she did have to get creative with how she was hiding the bombs, putting them in plants near support beams instead to directly on them. The stormtroopers issued bombs did have a lot of firepower but they went exactly inconspicuous.

The dinner party for Tagge and the Royal family would be starting soon and Aphra wanted to sneak herself in as a waitress to see the look on their faces as everything fell to shambles. Also it would allow her to be closer to Vader when the bombs went off so she would be protected by his magical abilities. Hopefully this wouldn't be the point Vader decides to let her die.

In her excitement Aphra felt as if she couldn't wait another moment to see this plan go off and rushed off to insert herself into the waitstaff.

* * *

The dinner party was the most boring thing Aphra ever witnessed.

That included those galas and balls where everyone slow danced for hours and then went home. The most action that had happened so far was when Aphra almost dropped a serving platter with drinks, but managed to catch herself before anyone noticed.

They didn't even talk about anything interesting.

Not even their outfits were fun to look at.

Darth Vader just stood there like a statue towards the back of the room, not participating in anything.

That reminded her, despite having spent several days with him at a time, on multiple occasions, she had never seen him eat. Strange, but not completely incomprehensible. He said he didn't like to be without his armor anywhere except his own castle either.

She wondered if he would ever invite her over to see the thing. A lot of Rebels talked about his castle on Mustafar saying it was "the place Jedi went to die" and if that didn't sound like the coolest thing ever, she didn't know what was. Maybe he had Jedi prisoners there and that's why rebels said that.

Aphra waited ten minutes into the boring dinner before she couldn't bare to wait any longer, and pressed detonate.

There was complete chaos the instantaneous second the bombs went off.

Because the stormtroopers and castle guards did not have helmet communicators nor did they have the same situation training, everything spiraled into disarray as the two groups simultaneously attempted two completely opposite actions.

The stormtroopers tried to rush and open the doors to investigate and kill the intruders, while the guards tried to barricade the doors to protect the royal members from whatever was outside.

It was hilarious to watch.

" _Vader_!" Tagge yelled. "Get me and the royal family to safety."

Basically, the plan was going great.

Now all she and Vader had to do was kill the royal family without having anyone notice. Unfortunately Tagge decided to invite himself under Vader's protective grip and stuck to his side like a child to their parents. And Vader had mentioned they could not kill Tagge yet, hopefully he had some kind of plan and didn't hope she would figure everything out.

"Follow me." Vader said before using the force to blast apart of the wall open, giving everyone a way out that wasn't being blocked by the disoriented guards.

She never got tired of seeking the force being used. She was also pretty sure Vader did that specifically to make the structural integrity of the castle worse.

Aphra trailed behind the group, not willing to be too far away from Vader in the collapsing building.

Shorty after escaping the dinning room one of the support beams fell from the celling. It looked very unnatural to Aphra, meaning Vader had most likely broken it off himself.

Quickly Vader grabbed Tagge and dodged out of the way of the falling marble beam. He did not help the others.

Just like that Vader and Aphra had accomplished the main goal of their plan.

"Vader!" Tagge shouted once again as soon as the beam had fallen. "You didn't save them too!?"

"It was either one of them or yourself." Vader said grabbing Tagge by his upper arm and pulling him along. "And you are important than them."

"Of- of course." The Admiral said a bit shaken up from his near death encounter and the murder of his friends. "We need to keep moving to safety, we need to find the culprit. This was probably done by the same person who-"

Aphra watched as Vader dragged Tagge further from the exit, and knowing Vader expected her to enter the transport ship before everyone else she ran for the exit.

* * *

There was no better feeling then escaping into space after causing mass chaos, knowing that you got away from the consequences and will never be found.

Of course Aphra did have to sneak into the ship and go to the cockpit before anyone else did to avoid detection, and then had to spend a few hours in hyperspace alone with Vader, but she rather liked spending time with him.

"Hmmm, so are you ever going to tell me something personal about yourself." Aphra asked him bored with sitting in silence.

"You know everything you need to." Vader said, and then added. "You already know far too many personal things about me."

 _Only the really bad and boring personal things_. She thought to herself but didn't want to even refer to that one thing out loud.

"Hmmmmmm," she thought of something simple to ask him before she worked her way up to the more personal things. "What's your favorite color?"

"What?" He seamed surprised she would ask that.

"Your favorite color, tell me, please. It's probably like the very least important thing about yourself you can tell me." And the fact that she knew a lot worse about him remained unspoken.

"Yellow."

A genuine smile crept onto her face. For some reason she felt it was fitting.

"What's your _least_ favorite color?"

He responded much quicker this time.

"Red."

"You must have hated that ugly uniform I wore then."

Even though Aphra could not see his face she got the impression that he was confused. The fact that she was now able to tell this let her know she was probably spending too much time near him.

"You know... because it was bright red?"

"I cannot see the color in this mask."

"Really? Why? That seams useless."

"... I do not know."

"Uh, okay." She had no idea what to say to that.

Ringing came from a communicator that was not hers.

Vader picked up his communicator from somewhere on his belt and looked to see who was contacting him.

"It's the Emperor." He told her the caller. "Aphra, you are not to make a single sound. If you do, you die." He told her quickly.

She nodded, and Vader answered the call.

"My master." Vader greeted the Emperor, Aphra raising an eyebrow at how he address him.

"Lord Vader. I have heard from Tagge about the death of our potential allies, and how you were unable to find the culprit." The Emperor said.

"I chose to save Admiral Tagge over them, I could not save all of them."

"I know you Lord Vader, you let them die." The Emperor said. "That is the reason you did not find the perpetrator."

Vader reminded silent.

"How stupid do you think I am. You were the one who set everything up. That is why you did not find the culprit."

Aphra didn't dare breath. _How did the Emperor know that?_ She felt like if she even blinked she would be in life threatening danger. The way the Emperor spoke was nothing like she had heard before, and she wasn't even the person being talked down too.

"You are still far too soft and venerable when it comes to slavery, I know you're smart enough to understand it's for the best of the Empire and it's citizens. Do you want me to have to lock you in your room again like a child?"

"No master."

"I've already given you far too many warnings on this subject. You are to return to Mustafar for a few days. I have already informed Tagge you are needed elsewhere."

"Yes master."

The Emperor hung up, Vader and Aphra sat in silence.

She had basically just witnessed the Emperor putting his second in command in time out for murder and treason.

There was a lot to unpack there, and a lot of implications from the conversation she wanted to ask about but knew she was testing her luck just by being alive right now.

Aphra once again didn't know what to do or say. It's not like she could just leave the cockpit without the stormtroopers and Tagge seeing her and shooting her on sight. But she most certainly once again just intruded in on something she was not meant to see or know about.

"Aphra," Vader broke the silence. "The moment this ship docs, you are to return to the Arc Angel, enter hyperspace and await further notice."

"Un- understood boss."

* * *

It was five days after the death of that royal family when Vader made right with his promise to give Aphra something of equal value to the holos she lost.

She had been bored, waiting for days for Vader to contact her when he had finally gotten his call and she was able to return to the star destroyer to meet him.

"I have something you may be interested in." Vader said to her onboard the Arc Angle, currently parked in Vader's personal handed onboard the Star Destroyer.

In front of her, he took out a glowing blue cube that seamed to be ever shifting in strands of white within the vibrant light blues. It was mesmerizing, but she did not know what it was.

"I had kept it hidden from the Emperor and the Inquisitors for a while. I did not want it destroyed, and I do not want it in the hands of the Inquisitors."

"What is it?" Aphra asked, intrigued that Vader would have hidden this from the rest of the Empire.

"It is a Jedi holocron." He answered.

Aphra had heard of these before from members of the Rebellion. But she had no idea what they looked like until now. It looked magical. Like something out of an old fairytale.

"Arn't Jedi the only ones able to use these things? Like wouldn't they be useless to anyone who isn't one?"

"Yes." He answered. "But I can open it and show you what is inside."

Releasing the cube from his hand Aphra was surprised to see it not fall to the ground and shatter on impact, but to see it defy gravity entirely and change shape as it rotated, the corners of the cube coming off and closely orbiting the new shape.

The cube then projected a holo of the man she had seen many times before. The Jedi from the holo Vader had stolen from her. The one the rebellion looked up to.

"I am Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, general of the five-oh- hundred and first." The blue washed holo projection man said. "And I will be teaching you some of the basic lightsaber forms."

Aphra didn't know if Vader could have chosen a better gift for her.

"This holocron contains all lessons from the classes General Skywalker had ever taught." Vader begin speaking over the holocron's lessons. "It also includes personal mission logs written by him and his Padawan Ahsoka Tano. Like all Jedi holocrons, it is one of a kind, but this one is more unique from the others, in that it was the only one Anakin Skywalker had ever created before he died."

"But I can't view any of those things, I can't use the force, it is a pretty rare find though."

Vader closed the holocron, and let it fall gently into his hands.

"Correct, but now you know what is in it, and how much it would be worth... to whoever you decide to sell it to, or if you decide to keep it, you would be the only one in the galaxy with these first hand accounts from the clone wars."

Aphra took the holocron from Vader's hand and marveled at its cool smooth touch. She had no idea how much it meant that Vader was giving this to her of all people.

"Looks like I'm not the only one who collects illegal information then. At least now I know I can read that kind of stuff in front of you without being at risk to being thrown into space."

"I promise when I kill you Aphra, it will be with my lightsaber."

* * *

In all this time she really felt like she was getting to know him. Probably knew him better then anyone else out there did. She supposed that would happen to anyone hired to build a secret army and run around doing their dirty work.

Soon after this week of compassion and connection between them, Doctor Aphra is forced into an airlock and launched into the void of space like she told Vader she never wanted to be.

And she counted on his betrayal in this exact manner.

Aphra knows nice things don't last forever. All her life she was shown this again and again. She predicted her own demise at Darth Vader's hand and escaped because of it.

She just didn't expect this one nice thing to hurt her like it did when it was gone.

Vader was a mess of contradictions, in how he was treated, and how he treated others. She didn't think it was possible to think of him as a close friend when she could barely get a grasp on who he was as a person.

Despite all the horror he inflicted on her she almost felt bad for him being unable to leave the from the Empire's clutches. Key word _Almost_. It wasn't possible for Aphra to feel bad for someone who constantly hurt the people that cared for them, even if they themselves hurt because of it.


End file.
